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Life Of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Creator: Edward Miner Gallaudet (author)
Date: 1888
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2

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15  

Nothing was more natural than that the mind of Dr. Cogswell, made thus painfully alive to the importance of establishing schools for the deaf in America, should turn to the young clergyman who had shown such enthusiastic interest in his child, as the man of destiny for the deaf of his country.

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At the invitation of Dr. Cogswell the following friends and neighbors met at his house on the 13th of April, 1815, to confer with him as to the practicability of establishing a school for deaf-mute children in Hartford: Ward Woodbridge, Daniel Wadsworth, Henry Hudson, Hon. Nathaniel Terry, John Caldwell, Daniel Buck, Rev; Nathan Strong, D. D., Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet (all of Hartford), and Joseph Battel, of Norfolk, Ct.

17  

The blessing of God was, invoked on the enterprise by Dr. Strong, and after an evening spent in discussing various means for attaining the desired object, it was determined to make an effort to send a suitable person to Europe for the purpose of acquiring the art of teaching the deaf in some one of the schools then existing in the old world. Dr. Cogswell and Mr. Woodbridge were appointed a committee to ascertain the name of a competent man who would consent to go, and to raise funds to meet the expense of sending such person. So great was the interest taken by the benevolent of Hartford in the novel undertaking, that Mr. Woodbridge was able to secure the promise of ample funds in a single day.

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Mr. Gallaudet was the first choice of all interested in the enterprise. His modesty and distrust of his ability to undertake so important a work led him to defer accepting the mission for a number of days, and to urge that some other man should be named. His friends, however, were so convinced of his peculiar and eminent qualifications that they were hardly willing to seek for any other man. So at the end of a week Mr. Gallaudet felt himself compelled to respond favorably to what seemed to be a plain call of duty.

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The following entry heads the first page of "A Journal of some Occurrences in my Life which have a Relation to the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb."

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Hartford, Conn., Thursday evening, April 20, 1815. I informed Dr. Mason F. Cogswell and Mr. Ward Woodbridge of my willingness to undertake the employment of instructing the deaf and dumb in my own country.

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And now must be noticed one of those strange coincidences that occasionally mark the lives of men, especially of such as seem to be called by Providence to do some particular work in the world.

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Events in Mr. Gallaudet's life had led naturally up to his selection by those who knew him best in the home of his youth, to undertake an enterprise the success of which demanded a rare combination of qualifications.

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But in no way connected with this chain of circumstances was the following letter which undoubtedly reached his hand on the very day he decided to accept the proposal of Dr. Cogswell and his friends:

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ANDOVER, April 18, 1815.

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MY DEAR FRIEND: -- Three days ago I met in Boston your old friend Mr. George Hall. He told me he should sail the next day for Savannah. Thence he should go to England, thence to the continent. The next winter he will spend in Paris, with the intent of acquiring information in regard to the instruction of the deaf and dumb. He does not mean to become a teacher, but to perfect his old system and gratify curiosity is his design.

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He wishes earnestly for a companion, and for you to be that companion. Having but lately determined upon this voyage, and ignorant of your abiding place, he had no opportunity of communicating his wishes to you. His first question when I met him: "Where is Gallaudet?" His second "Will you write him this very day?" He will be five or six weeks in Savannah. There he wishes you to join him; visit England and then France. Or find him in England in the summer, etc., etc., etc. He will stay here or there as long as you please, do what you please, and be as agreeable as all the world. He believes that his old system of instruction will afford great facilities in acquiring information on the subject of the mission, that your acquaintance with deaf and dumb persons will be also of essential service, and that of course you will be mutually serviceable to each other, and be of all the rest of the world the most suitable for such an undertaking. -- He is sorry he could not have seen you, but nevertheless wishes you to pack up, and be off with all convenient expedition. He wished me to write without delay, and urge every motive that might induce you to engage in this benevolent undertaking. I make no comments. May Providence direct and bless you always.

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Yours truly,
LORD.
-Nathan Lord, later President of Dartmouth College.-

28  

A letter received on the same day, from Ebenezer Kellogg, who had been with Nathan Lord a fellow student of Mr. Gallaudet's at Andover, and who was for many years a professor in Williams College, says:

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I had a letter from home yesterday: -- the deaf and dumb girl I carried you to see makes very considerable progress.

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